There is nothing guaranteed about the People’s Action Party’s (PAP) reform agenda, or that of the government it controls. While ministers have been reshuffled, motherhood statements made about listening more closely to people and a committee set up to review ministerial salaries, a cursory look at reform attempts elsewhere in the world will indicate that more often than not, they don’t go very far. Many eventually vanish without a trace like a puddle on hot tarmac. Reform is never an easy thing to do. There are winners and losers and the losers will make every effort to stymie it. Especially when big budgets are involved, e.g. public housing and transport infrastructure, for every argument in favour of change, there are as many arguments against it, or to go more slowly, or in a different direction. You could almost expect that reform petering out would be the default outc...